Joe Mantegna: 4 Bits of Trifling Trivia

Stage to Film
Joe Mantegna originated the role of Richard Roma (Glengarry Glen Ross) on the American stage in 1984. For the role he won a Tony award. Mantegna has said that "If I had to name one character that affected my career more than any in my life, it would've been [Roma]." He had his first film role, a small part in the movie Compromising Positions while he was still performing in Glengarry in New York. He later played Joey Zasa in the Godfather III and said that Coppola knew his stage work better than his film work. The same was true of Woody Allen when Mantegna had a part in the movie Alice. Glengarry ran on Broadway and then on the road for more than a year and many people (a lot of them directors) saw the play.

It doesn't hurt that there's a good working connection between Mantegna and David Mamet, writer of Glengarry Glen Ross. Mantegna has acted in several of Mamet's plays, including the two man play A Life in the Theatre. He also directed Mamet's play Lakeboat and later directed the movie version of which Mamet wrote the screenplay.

The Naming of David Rossi
Joe Mantegna is currently playing the character David Rossi on the hit TV show Criminal Minds. The actor was given the chance to name his character. David Rossi was the name of the first policeman to testify at the O.J. Simpson trial. Mantegna remembers watching the trial and thinking Rossi stood up well and with great integrity throughout the two days of pounding questions thrown by the defense. In Mantegna's words, "So I thought ''¹..."Someday I'm gonna name a character after this guy."

Works a Lot
Joe Mantegna, born Nov. 13 1947, has 134 titles listed in his filmography under acting on imdb.com. This number is only as of June 2011 and does not include his stage performances. Despite being known for Joey Zasa in Godfather and Rossi in Criminal Minds, his early work included a lot of comedy, especially on the stage. Among television work, he was in several episodes of the TV show Soap.

Fat Tony
Of those 134 titles, one of Mantegna's all-time favorites seems to be Fat Tony from The Simpsons. He has a clip of Fat Tony on his official Web site, JoeMantegna.com. Along with the clip is the blurb "No matter what I'm doing, I always make time for a Simpsons episode." He has been in 25 episodes of The Simpsons.

Sources and Other:
Rabin, Nathan "Joe Mantegna" A.V. Club, Onion Inc. April 2009 <www.avclub.com/articles/joe-mantegna,26934/ >

Mantegna, Joe 2011< joemantegna.com/ >

Sabatino, Joe "Interview with Joe Mantegna" Actorsreporter <www.youtube.com/watch>

Fleischmann, Carly "Interview with Joe Mantegna" March 2011< carlysvoicecom.powweb.com/ >